Ideally before you go on a genealogy research trip, you’ve made a list of the records you want to search, where they are located, etc. The reality is that many people don’t do that. One thing you don’t want to neglect to do: check the hours of the facilities you will visit, determine their access policies, see what cameras and scanners are allowed, etc. It can be a waste of time if the facility is not open when you “guessed” it would be, if records are off-site for one reason or another, or if you can only take a pencil and paper into the records area. These are things you need to know before you ever think about heading to perform on-site research a distance from your home.
I’ve been looking at a few sample images from the new book, Family Tree Historical Atlas of Germany by James Beidler and I was reminded of a few things about maps–other than their general importance in genealogical research which goes without saying: Space is limited on many printed maps and abbreviations not be standard–Helmershausen got abbreviated as Helmersh’n in this map. Not every town is listed–a few very small hamlets near Helmershausen aren’t listed Can you easily find locations “you already are aware of” on a map? It’s good to have a general idea of locations in your head to help avoid making mistakes. Don’t guess where someplace is located–look it up if you can’t remember. People always live near borders–at least mine do. Consider that some records […]
Record the provenance of any family items in your possession? Do you know who the original owner was? Do you know anything about how or when the item was made? How did it come into your possession? Who else owned it? Scratching the information into the back of the piece isn’t necessary–although if it’s already been done for you, it’s too late. And…it does add to the character of the piece and your connection to it.
Online indexes can lead you to an image of a record with a quick search–if you are lucky enough that names are spelled and indexed correctly. Make certain the “next image” isn’t part of the item you located. Census records may be split over two pages, draft cards are often images of the front and back of the card, death certificates sometimes contain “supplements” directly after the original document. Always look at the next image or two in any online set of images to make certain you’ve got it all–and look forward too as well. You’ll never know until you look.
It can be tempting to see one “juicy” clue in a document and want to run with it and begin researching it as soon as possible. It can be tempting to see a relative’s name in a document and conclude that the record has to be on him. It can be easy to misinterpret a word, get that incorrect meaning stuck in your head, and create a brick wall where none existed. Read the entire document that you’ve located. Think about what it says. Think about what it does not say. What does that document really imply? What does it not imply? Is there something you are hoping to see in that document that is not there? It may seem like needless advice, but you might be surprised […]
Throughout much of American history (and in other countries as well), adoption was an informal process where court or legal action was not required. Your relative may have been adopted without any legal record of that adoption taking place. The child may have been apprenticed out to a neighbor to learn a trade (sometimes generating a legal record–but not always). If the child’s parents were deceased, but had some property, there may have been a guardian appointed to oversee the property while the child was underage. In many other cases the child was simply “taken in” or perhaps spent time with a variety of families–not all of whom may have been related. As time moves forward, formal adoptions become more common, but those records are often sealed by […]
Accurate spelling of place names is one way I quickly determine if the compiler of genealogical information (online tree, book, etc.) pays attention to details. Of course, the occasional typo is one thing (which can easily be avoided in most programs by the way), but if the database I find has some of these spellings: Hartford County, Maryland–it is Harford. Amhurst County, Virginia–it is Amherst Schuler County, Illinois–it is Schuyler then I am a little worried about the rest of the data. Call me persnickity, but genealogy is about details. If place names that are established and standard (as these are) are not spelled correctly, how certain can I be that names, dates, and relationships are entered in the way they should be? We should always double check […]
We’ve revised our webinar on GedMatch and DNAPainter and will be offering it again on 7 July (date change). Attend live or pre-order a copy of the presentation on our announcement page.
Running across this picture in my great-aunt’s collection of photographs made me remember several genealogical truths: We sometimes don’t see the obvious–I didn’t immediately recognize my mother in this photograph and might not have without the identification that was already written on it. Now I clearly recognize her. At first I did not. We need to view things in context–other pictures on the same page provided additional information about this photograph that were not stated on photograph. You may not recognize things that have changed. I’ve been in the house this picture was taken in front of many times. I don’t recognize this back porch because it was altered when a den area was added to the back of the house in the 1960s
Based on when your ancestor was born, what wars could he have reasonably had service in?Teenagers under the actual service age can lie about their age in order to enlist. Those whose ages are a little on the high side may enlist, possibly in units geared towards older enlistments–there was a “Graybeard Regiment” in the US Civil War comprised of men beyond typical enlistment age. If someone enlisted, think about accessing their service records and potential benefit records. For those ancestors who didn’t serve is it possible that at some point in their life they may have married someone whose military service entitled their spouse to a benefit?
Do you know the names of the five towns nearest to your ancestor’s residence? Which one had the nearest church of the correct denomination (or relatively correct denomination)? Where would they have “done business?” Where would they have gone to register a birth or death? Where was the nearest newspaper?
Try and keep your data is as current a format as possible on the most up-to-date media there is. Times change. Technologies change. If you don’t remember punch cards from personal experience, search for them online. It’s a good reminder that any format can become obsolete. Or you can use paper and high-quality ink. Or a durable stone.
In some ethnic groups, during some time periods, it was common to use the names of deceased children for children born after the child had died. A couple could easily have had four children with the same name as one of my ancestral couples did. The last child fortunately survived, but the first three did not, dying shortly after birth. Genealogical software programs typically flag these types of children–thinking you have simply entered in the same child multiple times with different vital event dates. While today this practice is not usually done, there was a time when it was commonplace and don’t immediately assume that a researcher has made a mistake when they indicate a couple had repeated children with the same first name. Like always–do a little […]
I read a headline on a genealogy search site that read “spelling doesn’t count.” While it’s true that your ancestor’s names may have not have been spelled precisely the “correct” way and the same way every time, spelling does count–to a point. It’s not the precision of the exact letter match that is important, it’s the sounds suggested by these letters that matters, at least partially. Trautvetter, Troutfetter, and Trautbetter are not spelled exactly the same but the sounds represented by the different letters are similar enough that the spellings likely refer to the same “name.” There are other factors at play as well. Handwriting issues, Trautveller for Trautvetter, vowels misread as consonants, Trantfetter for Trautfetter, and similar challenges are also concerns. And there’s always Wharton being rendered […]
In 1877, my ancestor wrote his will and gave his wife a life estate in his real property. Upon her death, the real estate was to be divided among their three surviving children. It can be tempting to say “oh how gracious of him to do this” and focus on how this bequest limited what his wife could do with the property. It did limit what she could do with it. However, as long as the property taxes were paid, it kept her from losing it, kept someone from influencing her into selling it, kept it from going to pay the debts of a subsequent husband, made it impossible for her to mortgage or sell it to pay the debts of a child, etc. She could use the […]
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